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Wednesday, 12 March 2008

British Animation Awards - Best Music Video: Bell x1 & "Rocky Took a Lover " original and acoustic

The British Animation Awards will be decided on Thursday March 13th. I've decided to concentrate my energies on one hard fought contest, the award for Best Music Video. The contenders are:

Bell x1: Rocky Took a Lover

The Puppini Sisters: Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

Chemical Brothers: Salmon Dance

Rocky Took a Lover has Rocky and girlfriend shooting the stars in their automobile. The music is a delight, certainly my favourite of the three tracks short-listed and the animation complements a haunting song. It is a shimmering video of revolving buildings, a starred sky and blazing light in which the lovers soar in a red and white vehicle, for all the world like Santas on their sleigh. For me anyway the magical qualities of the song are replicated in the animation. Dark skies speckled by silver stars have an appealing quality and the sight of the pair floating away from danger on their red umbrellas is quite something. Rocky and friend have a quirky quality that at first viewing jarred with the romanticised landscape. Second time around the white pumpkin lanterns began to make sense. Bell x1 commissioned something extraordinary with this eclectic mixture of animation techniques, from puppetry, 2D, 3D, live action. As I say: eclectic. SSSR, for Passion Pictures, comprises three graduates from St. Martins College of Art and Design in London, Kristian Hammerstad, Marc Reisbig and Yu Sato. The video is utterly enchanting, imaginative, spectacular. But will it win? The other two short listed videos tomorrow. Meanwhile as an added treat try this delicious acoustic version of the song and video combined.